handheld light meters

jcorll

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Aug 8, 2009
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63
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Western PA
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35mm
I am very old school! As of now, When I don't want to use the lightmeters in my SLR's, I use my grandfathers General Electric DW-68. The values shown on it are from before they standardized ASA values. So I took out the card that had the GE numbers and made my own ASA number value line for it. It is pretty accurate! As much as I love it, I am still looking for a more modern meter.
 

Brandon D.

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Jul 4, 2008
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210
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USA
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Medium Format

Find a friend that has one, and play with theirs. If you don't have a friend with one, find a local camera shop that will let you play around with one in the store. Nothing beats hands on experience before you buy.

By the way, the Sekonic L-358 seems to have a cult following.
 

sharris

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Jun 25, 2009
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Ann Arbor, M
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For what it is worth, I've found myself using it a few ways. First, I like the analog displays. Easier to visualze where I am in range of light that way. Next, I use incident metering 75% of time in typical situations. But being able to 'spot' meter is important too for following reason and I hope it is a valid one to you too. When I have high contrast scenes where I am concerned about value placement, it's helpful if the subject image allows it, to spot meter the highest and lowest values and then see how that lines up in terms of range. If I just went off of incident, it may get 'weighted' to one end or the other. But having spot allows me to decide whether or not that incident reading is representative of where I want to place my values or if I need to shift things a bit. So therefore, having both is important to me for that reason. I have a vintage Gossen Luna Pro so I assume new models ALL have incident AND spot, but wanted to share my reasoning for desiring both. Cheers.
 
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That would be Sekonic L758-DR.


That's correct.
Reflected / Spot, multi-spot, spot-midtone / Incident / Flash / Ambient+flash % + variation... the list goes on!

Few people are worried by the 1/10th fraction mentioned in this thread, certainly I am not.
 

BetterSense

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Aug 16, 2008
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North Caroli
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35mm
Lightmeters are expensive. I made myself a really good spot/incident meter with a digital LCD display, and it works great. I really like the looks of the digisix though because of the the analog wheel and I might end up buying one of those anyway.
 

benjiboy

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Apr 18, 2005
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Hey watch it, I have a L358, who are you calling a cult ?
 

benjiboy

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Apr 18, 2005
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I like my Gossen Luna Pro F.

Jeff
I have a Gossen Lunapro SBC ( Profisix) and a Western Euromaster I've had for more than twenty years they are both fine meters but since I bought the Sekonic L358 about a year ago I haven't used either of them, and am thinking of selling both of them Jeff because the Sekonic is such a versatile meter , is so quick and easy to use, and can take up to nine light readings remember them, and average them at the touch of a button in either ambient or flash light or a mixture of the two, telling you what proportion of the reading is from each, I'm very impressed with it.
 
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Pumal

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Mar 12, 2009
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Multi Format
I've had a Gossen Lunasix 3 for years and it does it for me
 

benjiboy

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Apr 18, 2005
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